Literature & Linguistics / Emblem, Fable & Songbooks

[LA BARRE DE BEAUMARCHAIS, Antoine de]. Tafereel, of beschryving van den prachtigen tempel der zang-godinnen, vertoond in LX. heerlyke kunststukken. Behelzende alle de voornaemste geschiedenissen van de fabel-oudheid. Waerby gevoegd zyn de volkoome verklaeringen der fabelen, en de grondslagen, die ze in de historien hebben.
Amsterdam, Zacharias Chatelain, 1733. Large folio. With an engraved frontispiece, an engraved vignette on the title page, the title printed in red and black, a large armorial head-piece for the dedication, and 60 full-page engraved plates by Bernard Picart. Contemporary gold-tooled calf by the Three Acorn Bindery, sewn on 7 supports with the corresponding raised bands on the spine, a red morocco title label on the spine, lettered in gold, both boards are richly gold-tooled in a panel design with a central ornament, mottled and sprinkled panels of varying density, separated by vegetal borders. Further with gold-tooled board edges and blue mottled page edges. [6], XXVIII, 158, [4] pp. Full description

LAFARGUE, Étienne de. Poëme sur l'éducation, dédié à M. Le Comte Charles, fils de M. Le Duc de Luynes.
Paris, Guillot, Librairie de Monsieur, 1788. Small 8vo. With full-page engraved plate showing a young boy studying at home with his private tutor and his father watching, 4 finely engraved headings for each stanza of the educational poem, and several charming woodcut tail-pieces to the added fables and miscellaneous poetry. Contemporary gold-tooled green morocco. [4], XVIII, 135, [9] pp. Full description

[LA FONTAINE, Jean de]. La Fontaine en estampes, ou nouvelle édition des fables, plus complète que les précédentes; précédée de la vie de l'auteur, extraite du nouvel ouvrage de M. Walckenaer.
Paris, Auguste Nepveu, 1821. 4to. With an engraving on the title-page (Aesop talking with the animals before a bust of La Fontaine) and 110 half-page engravings illustrating the fables. Contemporary half brown sheepskin, sewn on recessed supports, purple decorated paper sides, gold-tooled spine with title and author in gold, gilt edges, silk endpapers and paste-downs. "XXIV" [= XXVIII, pp. XXV-XXVI and XXVII-XXVIII are misbound), 462 pp. Full description

LA FONTAINE, Jean de. Contes et nouvelles en vers.
Amsterdam [= Paris], [Joseph-Gérard Barbou], 1762. 2 volumes. 8vo. With engraved portraits of La Fontaine and Eisen and 80 engraved plates after drawings by Eisen and engraved by Aliamet, Baquoy, Choffard, Delafosse, Flipart, Lemire, Leveau, De Longueil and Ouvrier, and 4 vignettes and 53 head- and tailpieces by Pierre-Philip Choffard. An engraving of Le calendrier des vieillards in its découvert state is loosely inserted in volume 1. Contemporary gold-tooled red morocco, gilt edges. XIV, [2], 268, [2], 16; VIII, [2], 306, [8], [2 blank] pp. Full description

[LA HAYE, Jean de]. Peristromata Turcica, sive dissertatio emblematica, praesentem Europae statum ingeniosis coloribus repraesentans.
With:
(2) [HARSDÖRFFER, Georg Philipp]. Germania deplorata, sive relatio, qua pragmatica momenta belli pacisque expenduntur.
(3) [MILAG, Martin]. Aulaea Romana, contra Peristromata Turcica expansa: sive dissertatio emblematica, concordiae Christianae omen repraesentans.
(4) [Anonymous French critic of Cardinal RICHELIEU]. Gallia deplorata, sive relatio, de luctuoso bello, quod rex Christianissimus contra vicinos populos molitur.
[Nürnberg, Wolfgang Endter] (ad 1 with a false colophon: Paris, Toussaint du Bray), [each title-page with a chronogram:] 1641 (ads 1-2, 4) & 1642 (ad 3). 4 editions published together in 1 volume. 4to. With 4 letterpress title-pages in red and black, each with the date in a chronogram, 2 engraved title-plates plus 12 full-page engraved emblematic illustrations, all on integral leaves, each with a small plate nested in a larger plate (7 in the Peristromata with a varying rectangular central plate in dark blue or black and the same outer plate of a Persian carpet in orange; 7 in the Gallia with a varying oval central plate and the same outer plate representing peace with the palm tree in a landscape device of the Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft and a border representing war with military attributes). Further with 5 woodcut head- and tailpieces (plus 8 repeats), 21 "woodcut" decorated initials (5 series, at least some actually metal castings made from woodcuts) plus 8 repeats, and cast vine-leaf ornaments, acorns and other fleurons. Set in roman and italic types with incidental Greek and Hebrew. Light brown calf (ca. 1820?) by Charles Murton (ca. 1795?-ca. 1860?) in London, with his stamp on the front paste-down, sewn on 5 cords, gold-tooled spine with black morocco label, gold thick-thin fillets on boards, gold-tooled board edges, blind-tooled turn-ins, curl-marbled endpapers (white, red, blue, yellow and blue-green in that order), and an orange silk ribbon marker. 46, [1], [1 blank]; [3], [1 blank], 34; 64; 51, [1 blank] pp. Full description

LA MOTTE, Antoine Houdar de. Fables nouvelles, dédiées au Roy. Avec un discours sur la fable.
Paris, Gregoire Dupuis, 1719. 4to. With engraved allegorical frontispiece by N. Tardieu after Charles Coypel, engraved vignette on title-page by C. Simeneau after N. Vleughels and 100 engraved illustrations to the fables by and after Claude Gillot, Charles Antoine Coypel, Jean Ranc, Bernard Picart, Jean Baptiste Massé, etc. Contemporary mottled calf, gold-tooled spine. XLII, [4], 358, [2] pp. Full description

LEO VI (the Wise) of Byzantium and Antonius SEVERUS of Rome (attributed). Vaticinium Severi, et Leonis Imperatorum, in quo videtur finis Turcarum in praesenti eorum imperatore, una cum aliis nonnullis in hac re Vaticiniis ...
Brescia, Pietro Maria Marchetti, 1596. Small 8vo (14.5 x 10 cm). With 16 numbered engraved emblematic illustrations. Contemporary limp sheepskin parchment. 106, [6 blank] pp. Full description

LUQMAN al-Hakim (notes by Thomas ERPENIUS). Fabulae et selecta quaedam Arabum adagia. Cum interpretatione latina & notis Thomae Erpenii.
Leiden, Joannes Maire (colophon: "excudebat" Willem Christiaens van der Boxe, "typis" Johannes Janssonius), 1636. 4to. With Maire's woodcut device on the title-page and Van der Boxe's woodcut device above the colophon. Early 19th-century boards covered with blue brocade paper. 60, [2] pp. Full description

LUYKEN, Jan (and Caspar). [Set of 11 works by Jan Luyken].
Amsterdam, widow of P. Arentz, and Kornelis vander Sys, 1708 - 1718 (10 vols.); Haarlem, C.H. Bohn, 1767 (1 vol.). 11 volumes. 8vo. Contemporary uniform half calf, richly gold-tooled spines (10 vols.), the 1767 in slightly different half calf, apparently made to match the earlier ones. Full description

LUYKEN, Jan & Caspar and Anthony JANSSEN van ter GOES. Afbeelding der menschelyke bezigheden, bestaande in hondert onderscheiden printverbeeldingen.
Amsterdam, Reinier & Josua Ottens, [ca. 1726/50]. 4to. With richly engraved emblematic frontispiece, engraved publisher's device on title-page, and 100 numbered engraved plates (plate size ca. 12 x 8 cm) of trades and professions, engraved after the designs by Jan and Caspar Luyken. Contemporary blind-tooled vellum, gilt and gauffered edges. [1] letterpress leaf plus [1], 100 engraved ll. Full description